During the past 7 years we have had the opportunity of studying 27 cases of a condition characterized by multiple calcification of hyaline and fibrous cartilage both of the joints and of the intervertebral disks.* We present in this paper a detailed nosographical analysis of this clinical entity which we have named articular chondrocalcinosis (AC). Up to 1955, when we saw our first cases, we found a few reports in the medical literature describing altogether fifteen cases with calcification of the articular cartilage. Since 1955 reports on a further seventeen cases have been published.+ All the 32 cases so far reported are summarized in Table I (opposite). Personal Observations Our series of 27 patients with AC comprises eleven men and sixteen women aged 26 to 77 years. Clinical Analysis Articular chondrocalcinosis is manifested by episodic inflammatory involvement, acute or subacute, of one or more joints. The swelling of a joint, heralded by pain on movement, develops quickly and reaches its peak on the third or fourth day. If the knee joint is involved an exudate is found from the first day of the swelling. The duration of this arthritic involvement varies from 7 to 50 days (average 15). Often several joints are involved, either simultaneously, or at short intervals;

Our first observations had shown that articular chondrocalcinosis (AC) occurred in several members of the same family. As the original material was 157 copyright.

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The peptidergic signaling system is an ancient cell-cell communication mechanism that is involved in numerous behavioral and physiological events in multicellular organisms. We identified two novel neuropeptides in the neuronal projections innervating the salivary glands of the blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis (Say, 1821). Myoinhibitory peptide (MIP) and SIFamide immunoreactivities were colocalized in the protocerebral cells and their projections terminating on specific cells of salivary gland acini (types II and III). Immunoreactive substances were identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight (MALDITOF) analysis: a 1,321.6-Da peptide with the sequence typical for MIP (ASDWNRLSGMWamide) and a 1,395.7-Da SIFamide (AYRKPPFNGSIFamide), which are highly conserved among arthropods. Genes encoding these peptides were identified in the available Ixodes genome and expressed sequence tag (EST) database. In addition, the cDNA encoding the MIP prepropeptide was isolated by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). In this report, we describe the anatomical structure of specific central neurons innervating salivary gland acini and identify different neuropeptides and their precursors expressed by these neurons. Our data provide evidence for neural control of salivary gland by MIP and SIFamide from the synganglion, thus leading a basis for functional studies of these two distinct classes of neuropeptides.

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The associations of several disease entities in rheumatology with the human major histocompatibility system-the HL-A system-are well knDwn; as a review see for example Ryder et a1 (1 ). Although the regulatory functions of this system, the most complex and polymorphic known genetic system of mar., are concerned particularly with immune reactivity, vitrious other important traits (for example several enz:imes) also seem to be involved. These have led the present authors to investigate the relationship between the I-IL-A system and a metabolic disorder-chondrocalcinoris (2,3). MATERIALS AND METHODSTwo groups of patients were inbestigated. Twelve patients from 7 families from a Southwest S ovak locality with endemic occurrence of familial form of chondrocalcinosis and 13 unrelated individuals suffering from chondrocalcinosis from all over Slovakia; 19 healthy family members and 314 healthy unretated persons respectively 'were the control groups.Nine antigens of the first locus and IS antigens of the second locus of the HL-A system were determined with mono-

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